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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark called out her own team in May for sharing an Instagram post where her hand had been visibly altered. At the time, a source familiar with the matter told Front Office Sports that the error was the result of an attempt to combine an image of Clark with a separate one of her teammate, Aliyah Boston, using an AI tool.
The backlash was swift—not only from Clark herself, but fans, too. That’s been the common theme for months, with mounting evidence suggesting sports fans largely dislike when teams use AI-generated- or -enhanced content.
Still, many teams, leagues, and other sports organizations are experimenting with the practice—and more expect to increasingly embrace it in future.
The finding comes from a new survey conducted by FOS and Teamworks, which fielded responses from more than 200 industry leaders who operate teams, oversee athletes, or conduct competitions. Forty percent of respondents said their organizations already use AI for content or media-production purposes, while another 24% said they plan to begin doing so in the next 12 months.
Current usage is comparatively higher among professional sports organizations at 45%. Fittingly, some of the highest-profile examples of anti-AI sentiment among sports fans to date have come in response to pro teams using the technology to produce routine graphics, including concession menus at Dodger Stadium, lineup cards in the clubhouses at Citi Field, and social posts by teams several across the biggest leagues.
But AI-generated media is also present across college sports, where 29% of respondents in the industry said they are currently using the technology for content purposes. The backlash is present, too; another flashpoint came earlier this month when Washington State University Athletics announced a multi-year partnership with FanWord, a company that uses AI to produce athletic department-specific web content, like game recaps, player bios, and feature stories.
Fans dissected the deal almost immediately, with many noting FanWord’s offerings overlap with several key responsibilities of student-assistants and other entry-level roles. The discourse prompted WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication had to issue a statement attributed to its dean, Bruce Pinkleton, explaining the partnership.
A handful of teams have publicly separated themselves from the specific practice of AI-generated content.
“We will never use AI for our graphics/illustrations,” the New Orleans Saints wrote on X/Twitter in May. “Admin promise.” The St. Louis Blues took a similar approach in April, captioning a collage of team graphics: “Made by real people. Not AI.”
But AI is only proliferating—90% and 88% of respondents working in pro and college settings, respectively, said they expect their organizations to use the technology more over the next two to three years, across all types of business functions. And the story the data tells is that content will be a big part of this push.
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